MP Oleg Mikheyev of the center-left Fair Russia parliamentary
party told reporters on Monday that he had entered a draft law on
hunting for preliminary discussion.

Mikheyev expressed his belief that hunting is unnecessary and
immoral, regardless of whether one sees it as a sport, a pastime or
an industry. “What many people call hunting now is more of a
cruel killing that has nothing in common with the ancient art of
fair competition between a man and a beast,” Mikheyev said in a
press interview.

The MP noted that modern hunters use helicopters and specially
built towers, and that in Russia’s Far East region many animals are
killed on an industrial scale, and their carcasses are smuggled to
China where they are used in traditional medicines.

Mikheyev argued that fines for poaching cannot rectify the
problem, as they are too small and cannot be increased due to
corruption. He suggested a total ban on hunting, and the
introduction of criminal penalties for poachers totaling up to
500,000 rubles ($16,000), or three to five years in prison;
poaching is currently an administrative offense in Russia..

The bill also provides for some exceptions – hunting will be
allowed for indigenous peoples of the Far North, Siberia and the
Far East regions, but on the condition that hunters use only
traditional weapons. Hunting quotas will also remain for forest
rangers, but candidates will now be required to pass a
psychological test to get a hunting permit.

“People who feel pleasure when they kill animals cannot be
called normal. The procedure can help us in early detection of
latent madmen and murderers,” Mikheyev told daily newspaper
Izvestia.

Mikheyev also pointed to African countries, saying that nations
like Zambia and Botswana did the right thing when they sacrificed
income from safari tourism in order to safeguard endangered
species.

Fair Russia will discuss the new bill next Monday; if approved,
it will be submitted to the State Duma committee for natural
resources and ecology.